Indoor environmental quality perception and users’ satisfaction of conventional and green buildings in Brazil

Abstract

This work compares user’s perception about indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and corporate satisfaction in green building and similar ones: specifically, three green buildings certified as new constructions and three conventional buildings (bank branches) in São Paulo (Brazil), operating for at least one-year. To determine satisfaction were included in the survey building, besides IEQ, building features, corporate fulfillment and individuals’ ecofriendly attitude (sustainable practices). We applied semi-enclosed questionnaires with 6-points Likert-type scale with pictographic VAS to collect perceptions from employees and customers. We performed an exploratory factor analysis to summarize the main variables characteristics, data reduction and grouping in related indexes. Results shows that employees perceive green buildings spaces as better in comparison with conventional buildings employee’s perception, but customers of both groups cannot tell differences between those edifices. Ecofriendly attitude was more often observed among green building employees than conventional employees, presenting positively correlated to best ranking other buildings characteristics. Findings indicate that green buildings employees not only considered IEQ better but also are more satisfied overall with the company, building features and even more propense to sustainable attitudes; yet customers do not perceive differences between buildings in any aspects.